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Purchase of former Leominster plant could bode well for city's economy

By Jack Minch, jminch@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
12/31/2012 01:29:51 PM EST

LEOMINSTER -- The former Holiday Housewares plant on Tucker Drive is a monstrous facility that is nearly a mile in circumference and has sat empty for several years.

There is renewed hope for interest from tenants now that it has been sold for $11.65 million.

John R. Clementi's Holiday Real Estate LLC sold the 588,000-square-foot building and 24 acres to Calare Properties of Hudson Dec. 6.

Calare has been active in the region and also announced it bought the 448,000-square-foot former Evergreen Solar plant on Barnum Road on Devens with Hackman Capital at auction for about $8 million in April.

Calare's founder and CEO William Manley could not be reached for comment late this week, but he did issue a statement when the deal closed.

"We are excited to complete the purchase of 25 Tucker. As we implement and complete a $4 million restoration campaign, we have already received a number of inquiries about this property," Manley said . "It is a world class facility located in a very business-friendly municipality, less than one mile from the interstate."

Finding buyers for a building as large as Tucker Drive has been difficult since 9/11 and then the October 2008 stock market crash, said Tim O'Callaghan, executive vice president for Binswanger Cos. which brokered the sale.

Clementi bought the building Sept. 6, 2001, for about $17 million, according to Worcester Northern Registry of Deeds records.

Then terrorists struck on 9/11, and the real estate market dropped precipitously.

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Then the recession followed and markets slowed even more.

O'Callaghan took the listing in 2008 and soon had a Worcester company interested in the building.

The company, which he did not name, was doing due diligence on the property when the stock market nose-dived, and it lost interest.

Another potential buyer backed out of negotiations in late 2010.

"By that time I had already lined up Calare," O'Callaghan said.

Mayor Dean Mazzarella followed the building's fortunes and was aware that there was interest from buyers until 2008.

Mazzarella said he has talked to Calare officials who are excited by the purchase and interest from potential tenants.

He is unaware of whether interest is coming from businesses already in the city that are looking to relocate or businesses from outside the city.

"I think it is a beginning of a turnaround for that property," Mazzarella said.

Diversified Visiting Nurse Association is the only tenant in the building now.

Lisa Marrone, the economic development coordinator, is unabashedly excited by the sale and its potential impact on the city.

""This is a huge economic engine, that building there, for the city," Marrone said. "Hundreds of jobs will come into that building just based on the size of that building."

She was not surprised by the sale because of the interest it generated over the years and believed when the economy started improving there would be a sale.

It was a complicated sale involving input from city and state officials as well as the North Central Chamber of Commerce, Marrone said.

"It's not just discussions between two people," she said. "There were a lot of moments we are on the edge of our seats hoping something would happen."

Tucker Drive is an excellent deal for Calare because it would be prohibitively expensive to put up a new building of similar size and amenities, Calare and O'Callaghan said.

The sales price was about $20 a square foot but new construction would cost about $60 a foot, O'Callaghan said.

There are natural dividing walls in the facility so it can easily be subdivided for three tenants, he said.

The building has ceilings that range from 26 to 28 feet high and has 43 loading dock doors, according to Calare.

There is also a double spur off the CSX railroad lines.

The building has some unique configurations for a crane that runs down the center, and electrical feeds that run underground and up into machinery, O'Callaghan said.

The building also features 26- to 28-foot ceiling heights, 11,500 kVA of available power, 43 dock doors and CSX rail service with a double spur that allows sidecar loading directly into the distribution area

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